Deadly
New York Structure Fire Began After 3-Year-Old Played with Stove

It was
just three days after Christmas when the fire started at 2363 Prospect Avenue
in the Bronx. Inside a first-floor apartment, a 3-year-old boy played in the
kitchen with his mother in another room. His sudden screams caught her
attention, and she found the boy had been playing with the burners on the
stove, which had caused a fire to start. The mother grabbed both her son and a
two-year-old child that was also inside the apartment and fled; behind her, the
door to the apartment remained open.

Firefighters
received the first call regarding the Bronx fire at 6:51 p.m. and were on scene
three minutes later, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio. The fire hydrant
nearest to the burning building, however, was frozen solid in the frigid
temperatures, sending responders in search of another hydrant nearby.

Fire
Spread Quickly Through the Stairwell, Trapping Some Residents

Many
residents attempted to get out of the building through the stairwell, but it
proved to be a dangerous route.

Video footage of the burned out hallway and stairwell of 2363 Prospect Ave in the Bronx, where a 5th alarm fire killed 12 people. #FDNY Fire Marshals determined the cause of the fire to be a young child playing with the burner on a stove pic.twitter.com/MwcuxX6j8k

Some
residents escaped carrying as many of their children as they could while having
to leave the rest of their family behind.

Lawsuits
in the Works Against Various NY Departments for Their Role in Bronx Fire

Eleven
claimants have already filed a notice to file a lawsuit against the city and
its various departments for what they say were negligent acts that contributed
to the fatal fire. Each claimant seeks around $10 million.

Elsewhere
in the court documents, the claimants allege that "had said Administration
for Child Services Department and/or other City agencies followed up on
complaints and taken the child away from the mother, as they should have, said
fire would not have occurred."

The notice
to file a lawsuit addresses multiple violations against the owners of the
apartment building but alleges the city failed to ensure that action was taken.

Fire
Department of New York

The
claimants allege that the frozen hydrant awaiting firefighters was another
element that added to the impact of the fire, saying that it took
"precious time" to locate another working hydrant.

The
documents allege that the city allowed "water to build up in the fire
hydrants thereby allowing to the line to freeze" and "allowing cracks
in the fire hydrant nearest the place of the fire which allowed cold air in and
caused the fire hydrant lines to freeze."

Officials
Urge People Not to Rush Conclusions About Prospect Ave. Apartment Fire

An
investigation into the Bronx fire will take many months, but New York City
officials are hesitant to jump to conclusions and ask others to be cautious
about laying blame.

New York
City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement on Twitter that the fire, "Appears to have been accidental," adding "as far as we
can see, nothing was problematic about the fire safety in the building."

Fire
Commissioner Nigro echoed Mayor de Blasio's statement saying that no structural issues
contributed to the fire,
and a spokesperson for the New York City Housing Preservation and Development
Department said that the building had a "relatively low history of repair
violations."

Victims
of New York Building Fire Remembered and Mourned

Two weeks
have passed since the Bronx fire, and funeral services have begun for victims.

VIDEO: Five family members killed in a Bronx apartment building fire will be buried in Jamaica says the family. Thirteen people in total were killed in the December 28th fire pic.twitter.com/28i3xt8xDT

Shevan
Stewart, Karen Stewart-Francis' sister, was in the funeral home's vestibule
when she fainted, before waking up shouting, "The fire, the fire,
fire!" According to her brother, Rudolph, her cries were flashbacks from
the tragedy.

"She
tried to save them," he said. "She's taking it very hard."

Solider
Who Saved Four in Building to Be Honored Posthumously

Twenty-six-year-old
Private Emmanuel Mensah had come back to New York for Christmas on a break from
National Guard basic training, and would otherwise not have been in the
building for the fire. For four residents, however, it's lucky he was.

Mensah,
who is a native of Ghana and serves in the U.S. Army, escaped the fire as it
broke out, but ran back into the burning building to save the lives of four
other residents, some family members. He died while attempting further rescues.

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